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Jan 7, 2010
Tibetan filmmaker gets 6 years
WASHINGTON - A CHINESE court has handed a six-year prison term to a Tibetan film-maker who made an internationally watched documentary in which ordinary people aired grievances, his family said on Wednesday. Dhondup Wangchen, 35, had trekked across the Himalayan territory for five months asking about topics including Chinese rule, the exiled Dalai Lama and the Olympics which Beijing was preparing to hold in August 2008. The self-taught film-maker was arrested in March that year as major protests erupted in Tibet. He had just completed the film, eaving Fear Behind, which has since been screened in more than 30 countries. The court in Xining in Qinghai province handed him a six-year sentence after authorities accused him of subversion, his family said in a statement. 'My children and I feel desperate about the prospect of not being able to see him for so many years,' said his wife Lhamo Tso, who fled to safety in India with their four children in 2006 before he started filming. 'We call on the Chinese authorities to show humanity by releasing him. My husband is not a criminal; he just tried to show the truth,' she said. The family said that the court barred him from bringing a lawyer and that the verdict was delivered quietly on Dec 28. Mr Wangchen, who had no formal education, made the film with assistance from his cousin Gyaljong Tsetrin, who has political asylum in Switzerland. Mr Tsetrin said that his cousin had contracted Hepatitis B through rough treatment in jail. -- AFP
Home > Breaking News > Asia > Story
Jan 7, 2010
Tibetan filmmaker gets 6 years
WASHINGTON - A CHINESE court has handed a six-year prison term to a Tibetan film-maker who made an internationally watched documentary in which ordinary people aired grievances, his family said on Wednesday. Dhondup Wangchen, 35, had trekked across the Himalayan territory for five months asking about topics including Chinese rule, the exiled Dalai Lama and the Olympics which Beijing was preparing to hold in August 2008. The self-taught film-maker was arrested in March that year as major protests erupted in Tibet. He had just completed the film, eaving Fear Behind, which has since been screened in more than 30 countries. The court in Xining in Qinghai province handed him a six-year sentence after authorities accused him of subversion, his family said in a statement. 'My children and I feel desperate about the prospect of not being able to see him for so many years,' said his wife Lhamo Tso, who fled to safety in India with their four children in 2006 before he started filming. 'We call on the Chinese authorities to show humanity by releasing him. My husband is not a criminal; he just tried to show the truth,' she said. The family said that the court barred him from bringing a lawyer and that the verdict was delivered quietly on Dec 28. Mr Wangchen, who had no formal education, made the film with assistance from his cousin Gyaljong Tsetrin, who has political asylum in Switzerland. Mr Tsetrin said that his cousin had contracted Hepatitis B through rough treatment in jail. -- AFP
